Family of slain Freemansburg officer says he has 'everlasting life' with God

Freemansburg police officer Robert Lasso was gunned down while trying to fend off George Hitcho Jr.'s dogs with stun gun, authorities say.

Officer Robert Lasso (Handout/Special to The…)

August 12, 2011|By Steve Esack, OF The Morning Call

Robert Lasso grew up in an immaculate Cape Cod on Chestnut Street in Freemansburg, where his parents taught him to respect others, love family and appreciate the coziness of living in small-town America.

Lasso watched as his father volunteered his time as a firefighter, fire chief and Borough Council member. The son, too, suited up as a volunteer firefighter for the borough and later swore an oath to protect and serve its citizens as a police officer. He became known for his humor, kindness and zeal for fatherhood.

But small-town America has a dark side, and the 31-year-old police officer crossed into it Thursday afternoon.

He went to investigate a disturbance, which led him to 440 New St., less than two blocks from where he grew up. At a cluttered home that reeks of dog feces, Lasso encountered George Hitcho Jr., who court records show trashed a school as a youth and grew into a man with a petty rap sheet and explosive temper he took out on his wife until she left him.

Hitcho, 46, is charged with killing Lasso with a shotgun blast to the head while Lasso tried to fend off two of Hitcho's 10 dogs with a stun gun under orders from police Chief George Bruneio, who had arrived as Lasso's backup.

"I always thought something would happen there, but nothing like this," New Street resident Chris Spengler said of Hitcho.

Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli said he will seek a first-degree murder conviction and the death penalty for Hitcho, who is in Northampton County Prison without bail on a homicide charge.

"Killing a law enforcement officer is an aggravating factor" that allows prosecutors to pursue capital punishment, Morganelli said Friday.

Police charged Hitcho's house guest, Todd Schaedel, with obstruction of justice. Police say Schaedel denied he was present at the crime, but witnesses — including law enforcement — said they saw him there. Schaedel later told authorities he saw Hitcho shooting Lasso, court documents say.

Schaedel was sent to the county prison under $200,000 bail.

On Friday, police from neighboring communities streamed into the Freemansburg police station to give their condolences, while state troopers helped patrol the three-quarter-square-mile borough of 2,636.

Philadelphia police Commissioner Charles Ramsey phoned Freemansburg Mayor Gerald Yob on Friday morning to let him know the Philadelphia Police Department would assist with Lasso's funeral. In Harrisburg, Gov. Tom Corbett ordered flags in the capital and Northampton County to be flown at half-staff.

Standing before his own flag that swayed gently in the breeze halfway up its pole, Donald Lasso found strength in God and in the family that flanked him as he fought back tears to describe the hole his son's murder has left in their hearts.

"We cannot begin to say how devastated this family is with the loss of Robert," Lasso told reporters gathered on his front lawn. "[He was] a loving husband, father, son and brother."

Lasso, who joined the police force in 2004, leaves behind a wife, Jennifer, and two children, a daughter who will be 7 next week, and a son, 4. They live in south Bethlehem.

Jennifer, a Liberty High School teacher, was too distraught to talk about the man she met while he worked at a Hellertown video store and married Aug. 23, 2003, in St. Theresa's Catholic Church, Hellertown.

"I can't do this right now," she said through tears.

Others spoke for her.

"He was my best friend before I met my husband," said Lasso's sister Jessica Hawk of Bethlehem, one of Lasso's five sisters and brothers. "We did everything together growing up in this house, and he became a role model for our kids."

"Robert, he was so good," said his mother, Elsie Stem of Mount Bethel. "He was so loved, especially by his kids. Now they have to grow up without a daddy."

A daddy who would flick on the firetruck and police car sirens for his son and daughter when they visited him at work. A daddy who reveled in taking them on "dates" to the Polish Water Ice shop in Bethlehem.

"He'd take off his police hat and put on his dad hat," said Jose Garcia, captain and president of the Freemansburg Volunteer Fire Company. "You couldn't ask for a better dad."

Lasso was nothing like Hitcho, described by those who knew him as loud, belligerent and a know-it-all, but not extremely violent.

He had his first run-in with the law in 1979 when he was 14. Hitcho was one of four youths who caused $80,000 worth of damage to a Bangor Area School District junior high school. That got him and the other teens sent to a boy's home in Montgomery County and later sued by the district to recoup costs.

When Hitcho was in his 20s, he was arrested at least three other times by Bethlehem police on charges of marijuana possession, drunken driving and harassment.